The Fiennes family project, Onegin, is based on Alexander Pushkin’s poem. Both the Fiennes family and Mr Pushkin demonstrate that they have absolutely no clue how real women behave. If they do, they don’t show it here. Liv Tyler’s pivotal character Tatyana comes off as nothing more than a male fantasy of martyr/illicit lover. Utterly unreal, therefore robbing this movie of any dramatic impact of Evgeny Onegin’s emotional breakdown.

Onegin is a Russian nobleman who inherits a country estate. In escaping bankruptcy, he finds himself bored to death instead. His most tolerable buddy is Lensky, a budding poet, whose sister falls for Onegin. Alas, Onegin deems himself too cool to love. What now?

Onegin is depicted as a tale of unrequited love. Really? I have no idea why Tatyana loves him that much. The final scene, which is a make-or-break moment for Onegin’s character, doesn’t make sense. The whole story is nothing more than a self-absorbed man’s tale of narcissistic indulgence.

And underneath the pretentious arty-farty aspirations, Onegin is just a tale of a dirty pervert’s fantasy of seducing that innocent jail bait next door without facing the consequences. Alexander Pushkin, that creep.